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I often dream I am at a bakery and I am having every different chocolate cake , scone , cream cake , strawberry short cake , custard pie , chocolate truffle and lemon cream pie that they have in their glass case . On Sunday I met The Russian at Sweet Adelaine ‘ s Bakery in Berkeley and that bakery is like my dream. The counter top and glass case is crammed with cookies , scones , fruit buckle cake , blondies , chocolate pave , everything I dream about . Unbelievably -I had a chicken curry sandwich , a piece of quiche and just one chocolate chip cookie . I knew I had hours and hours of yarnbombing to do and I didn’t want to get delirious.

I really liked that bakery and there was a good 3 loop bike rack outside . I considered ditching my plan to yarnbomb The Lakeshore library and spend the day eating cookies and yarnbombing Sweet Adelaine’ s instead but The Russian sweetly reminded me that I care deeply about yarnbombing all the libraries of Oakland . So I went my way .

People often ask me about my assistant The Russian . Well she is going off to art school in San Francisco today and I am very proud . And jealous.

So I drove over to Lakeshore which is very pretty and confusing to drive around . I drove around and around and finally parked my car . I yarnbombed The Lakeshore Library – I’ll tell you about that later – and then I went over to the big Gazebo by Lake Merritt and contemplated 3 lovely little bike racks . ” They aren’t really a library ” I rationalized ” But they are very near one and they would look exceptionally nice yarnbombed . ” So I yarnbombed them .

5 bike racks is a lot of sewing so I tried hard to stay relaxed .I’m always nervous at first , sewing and watching police cars drive by and wondering how the police are feeling today in Oakland . Eventually the sun and the shining like soothed me and I began to enjoy the beautiful and totally absurd act of yarnbombing.

The colors are very sugary on this installation . This made it very appealing to small children . A very little girl came and swung on a loop while I sewed . She came very close to me and fingered my pink sewing yarn . Then she wrapped my strip of knitting around her hand in a businesslike sort of way and tried to walk off with it . Sadly , I had to take it away . Later an older woman with a plastic badge around her neck came to watch me and she couldn’t stop giggling at what I was doing . She said she was from Hong Kong and she told me many things in Chinese . She wanted to help me so she held my knitting as I sewed. She held it very tight and crooked so it was only slightly helpful .

More people came by marching for peace . They have been marching for many years and may never get done . They knew all about my yarnbombing on College Ave . A woman and her photographer showed up next and said ” Can we photograph out shoes on your yarnbomb ?”

‘Ok ” I said in confusion . The woman sat down on a bike loop and promptly started to fall off as the knitting spun around . I devotedly hoped if she fell off that she wouldn’t sue me .

I sewed and sewed and worked on a little meditation exercise . Doing . Not doing . Feeling the Not Doing in my body .

At this point I realized that I had no idea where I had parked my car.

When this piece was all done it really looked like something . I couldn’t stop taking pictures . Sometimes yarnbombing looks like another world coming through this one . 2 woman stopped big smiles .” ‘This is your best one ever ” they said .

Stumbled across a link to your blog today, and was thrilled to see these yarn-bombed bike racks here. I see them on my daily runs around Lake Merritt and they always make me so, so happy. Thank you!!!!

I don’t know what possessed you to start doing this, or where you find the time or energy. But I pray that you receive many blessings in your life and your career for the utterly harmless, overwhelmingly joyous moments your work brings to so many people. (And, btw – Oakland PD has WAY bigger fish to fry.) Thank you so much.

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We were having a good time yarnbombing The North Berkeley Library last Friday , getting ready for their grand reopening. We had 4 glass blowing inspired knit tags and they really looked good against the new rosy tile. Lots of locals were stopping and taking pictures and thanking us. I love libraries so much and […]